Prior to 2010, there was probably no time since the 12th century in which circumnavigation of the north pole was possible.
Each year since then, the Northwest and Northeast passage have both cleared. It was first clear this year on 9 August, compared to 19 August last year.

There was a big chunk north of Siberia for a while that wouldn’t budge. A few days ago it looked rather amusingly like an angry ghost:
http://www.dazvoz.com/nsidc-ice-extent-05-08-2012.png

But the polynya representing the ghost’s mouth thwackened out like a beauty and his whole head came off.

thwackended

farkenbewdymate.

>>Prior to 2010, there was probably no time since the 12th century in which circumnavigation of the north pole was possible. <<

The reduction of the summer sea ice was first recorded in the Barents Sea and in the Kara Sea to the west, and later spread to more eastern parts of the Northeast Passage. From the end of August 1940 – shortly after the passage of the German auxiliary cruiser Komet – to the end of September the entire Northeast Passage was reported free of ice (Ahlman 1947, p.305). No less than about 100 ships were operating along the USSR arctic coast during this period. Relatively warm conditions existed in large parts of the Arctic August-September 1940.
Mapping of the sea ice along the USSR arctic coast from airplanes demonstrated that the summer sea ice extent from 1924 to 1944 decreased about 1 mill. km2 within the USSR part of the Arctic (Ahlmann 1947).

In addition, along the route taken by the drifting Norwegian research vessel Fram across the Arctic Ocean 1893-1896, the average sea ice thickness of first year sea ice has decreased from 365 cm as recorded by Fram, to only 218 cm as recorded by the USSR icebreaker Sedowduring its drift 1937-1940, roughly following the route of Fram 1893-1896 (Ahlman 1947).
Finally, Ahlmann (1947) draws attention to coastal erosion in the USSR part of the Arctic. A couple of Siberian islands consisting of ice-rich permafrost have melted completely away because of the warming, and the southern border of permafrost in Russia and Siberia has retreated towards north by several 10 km’s.

Builtfor the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Force to serve as a supply ship forisolated, far-flung Arctic RCMP detachments, St. Roch (323 tons) was also designed to servewhen frozen-in for the winter as a floating detachment with its constablesmounting dog sled patrols from the ship. Between 1929 and 1939St. Roch made three voyages to the Arctic.Between 1940 and 1942St. Roch navigated the Northwest Passage, arriving in Halifax harbor on October11, 1942.

St . Roch was thereby the second ship to make the passage, and thefirst to travel the passage from west to east. In 1944,St. Roch returned to Vancouvervia the more northerly route of the Northwest Passage,making her run in 86 days. The epic voyages of St. Roch demonstrated Canadiansovereignty in the Arctic during the difficult wartime years, and extendedCanadian control over its vast northern territories.
Retired after returning from the Arctic in 1948,St. Roch was sent to Halifaxby way of the Panama Canal in 1950. Thisvoyage made St. Roch the first ship to circumnavigate North America.

Heres your 20 bucks…

Observer, you giant doofus… that news item indicates only one of the passages was open.

In order to circumnavigate the pole, you need both the NE passage and the NW passage open (as has occurred in the last three years, and at no other time since the Dark Ages.)

dv said:

Observer, you giant doofus… that news item indicates only one of the passages was open.

In order to circumnavigate the pole, you need both the NE passage and the NW passage open (as has occurred in the last three years, and at no other time since the Dark Ages.)

Finally getting over that cold snap then, are we?

Finally getting over that cold snap then, are we?
—

Yep … should be clear sailing and bikini weather for a while. Booyah!

dv said:

Finally getting over that cold snap then, are we?
—

Yep … should be clear sailing and bikini weather for a while. Booyah!

I wonder if they had bikinis in the Dark Ages?

Observer, you giant doofus…

Could you please insert a smiley face, at the least, when calling me a “giant doofus” dv ? :(

that news item indicates only one of the passages was open.

In order to circumnavigate the pole, you need both the NE passage and the NW passage open (as has occurred in the last three years, and at no other time since the Dark Ages.)

Lets take a closer look, dv, at my “news item”.

From the end of August 1940 – shortly after the passage of the German auxiliary cruiser Komet – to the end of September the entire Northeast Passage was reported free of ice (Ahlman 1947, p.305).

Mapping of the sea ice along the USSR arctic coast from airplanes demonstrated that the summer sea ice extent from 1924 to 1944 decreased about 1 mill. km2 within the USSR part of the Arctic (Ahlmann 1947).

Roch made three voyages to the Arctic.Between 1940 and 1942. Roch navigated the Northwest Passage, arriving in Halifax harbor on October11, 1942.

I believe that this info indicates that the NE & NW passages were both ice free between 1940 to 1944.

I’m old enough to remember when the NW passage being clear was newsworthy but it’s now just a normal summertime occurrence, with cruise companies advertising annual voyages.

dv said:

I’m old enough to remember when the NW passage being clear was newsworthy but it’s now just a normal summertime occurrence, with cruise companies advertising annual voyages.

So it’s good for the tourism sector, see, they were right about that at a temperature rise somewhere between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees Celsius, the global economy reaches “optimal” adaptation¡